Representational Oil Paintings &  Fine   Art Prints in the Classical Tradition
 

                  

© Kay Witherspoon, all rights reserved  ●  9760 Mayfair St., Studio B  ●  Englewood, CO 80112  USA
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#8 FINAL: pre-varnish



This landscape is selected from a series of photos I took off I-285 between Denver and Gunnison, Colorado.  The series includes a living beaver dam and surrounding meadowlands .  The creek itself was full of brook trout and there were ample signs of deer and coyote in the area. 
 
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I begin  my studio paintings by drawing the basic shapes, then blocking in the under-painting with a thin layer of paint.  At this stage, I perceived the juncture of the center aspen and the downed, angled aspen stopped the eye from being drawn into the painting, so I eliminated it by raising it to begin at the vanishing point in STEP THREE.

 
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I utilize soft bristle brushes (Jerry's Artarama - Ebony Splendor, filberts) for smooth brushstrokes and easy layering of pigment.  I layer my pigments from dark and/or intense colors to lighter tones.  By using about 6 brushes, I rarely clean a brush until the day is over.  I find I can get more realistic half-tones by mixing my colors as I go with brushes that already have that specific color range (yellows, browns, greens, etc.) on the bristles.  This technique allows for a greater variety of mid-tones and facilitates building perspective and atmosphere.
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The sunlight is backlighting the trees and thus flows "down-slope" to the creek bed.  Shadows are crucial to a unified and balanced composition, as are strong lines and angles - like the standing and fallen tree trunks and tree-limbs.  Since the rocks are mostly circular, carved by time and water action, I've chosen to balance them with strong vertical tree limbs at the top. This helps to "pull" the eyes upwards with a pleasing push and pull tension.

The path-like shadows help to balance the darkly shadowed creek-bed, create an "alternating rhythm" of light and dark, and lead the eye around the composition.
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